Speculation about who will run the ABC is, for newspaper columnists, what speculation about an election date is for political editors: an old and faithful friend, report Nine Publishing CBD columnists Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman . Nevertheless, CBD has learnt that former Nine Entertainment chief executive Hugh Marks has emerged as a contender for the role of managing director of the ABC, which David Anderson is vacating just one year into his second five-year term. Marks led Nine (publisher of this masthead) from 2015 to 2021.
He left after revealing he was in a relationship with another Nine executive. Meanwhile, another name in the frame, SBS managing director James Taylor , was approached by the headhunters but is not interested, we heard on the media grapevine. And why would he be? Why upgrade your salary and stress levels to run the ABC and face the parliamentary headkickers at Senate Estimates in search of clickbait? In his SBS role, Taylor can, like his SBS predecessor Michael Ebeid , treat estimates much like a gathering of the parliamentary friends of Eurovision fanclub.
Taylor declined to comment. [Read more] The chairman and independent directors of media company GTN have urged shareholders to reject a $91m takeover bid due to close this week, reports The Australian’s Anthony Keane . ASX-listed GTN, the biggest supplier of traffic information reports for radio stations in Australia, Britain, Brazil and Canada, has been facing a 46.
5c per share offer by .